BOOK REVIEWS

This article was downloaded by: [Colorado College]On: 30 October 2014, At: 18:25Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

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BOOK REVIEWSDorita F. Bolger a & Dr. Carolyn K. Cuff ba Westminster College , New Wilmington, PA, 16172b Westminster College , New Wilmington, PA, 16172-0001Published online: 04 Mar 2009.

To cite this article: Dorita F. Bolger & Dr. Carolyn K. Cuff (2003) BOOK REVIEWS, Journal of Interlibrary Loan, DocumentDelivery & Information Supply, 13:3, 127-134, DOI: 10.1300/J110v13n03_08

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BOOK REVIEWS

ARIEL: INTERNET TRANSMISSION SOFTWARE FOR DOCUMENTDELIVERY. Ives, Gary (Ed.). New York: The Haworth Press, Inc., 2000. 134pp. ISBN: 0-7890-1041-0. $49.95. Co-published simultaneously as Journal ofInterlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information Supply, Volume 10, Num-ber 4, 2000.

Ariel® software has been in use in libraries since the fall of 1991. Duringthe past ten years, various proponents and practitioners of Ariel have authoredarticles or made presentations wherein they discuss the features and function-ality of the program–a product that has become the industry standard for elec-tronic document delivery. With this volume, Ives has produced the firstcollection of articles written expressly to chronicle Ariel’s development andimplementation in various library settings.

Jonathan Lavigne (Stanford) and John Eilts (Research Libraries Group)provide a concise essay describing the evolutionary design of Ariel. The re-maining ten contributors, all front-line staff, provide solid descriptions, in-cluding difficulties and solutions, of Ariel implementation and use.

Daisy Benson, an early adopter of Ariel, provides a case study of Ariel atthe University of Texas at Austin. Another early adopter, James McCloskey,describes how and why twenty medical libraries developed operational guide-lines to maximize efficient use of Ariel, yet had to abandon their consortia planof implementing Ariel.

Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information SupplyVol. 13(3) 2003

http://www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sku=J110 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Authors working with a consortia or networked system provide their per-spectives. Harry Kriz, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,links Ariel and ILLiad and describes the advantages and disadvantages of elec-tronic delivery of documents to the requestor’s desktop. Mary Mallery andNavjit Brar document the successful experience of implementing an Ariel net-work among the Central Jersey Ariel Libraries Network. Thomas Saudargasdescribes a statewide network in Florida with detailed information on theLINCC (Library Information Network for Community Colleges) documentdelivery workstation that includes Ariel as a key component. Lynn Wiley re-ports on the state of Illinois’ funding of a large scale Ariel project.

Case studies by users outside the United States include an article by BushraAlmas Jaswal at Lohore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan inwhich she describes her experience of establishing an electronic document de-livery service. Jenny Raubenheimer explains the use of Ariel in a multi-millionvolume regional virtual library in South Africa. Mary Van Buskirk and Di-ane-Hélène Caouett explain how CISTI integrated Ariel into its document de-livery operation.

Gary Ives provides the concluding essay in which he devotes half the discus-sion to scanners. He says, “I do believe, without denying that workstation,printer, and network capabilities are important, that the most important choice alibrary makes when implementing or upgrading Ariel is the choice of scanner.”

This volume should provide the reader with concrete evidence of Ariel’sapplicability for most if not all document delivery scenarios. Couple this withthe information available on the Research Libraries Group (RLG) website(www.rlg.org) and one has a clear understanding of Ariel-from its develop-mental years through its current incarnation.

Dorita F. BolgerAssociate Professor/Associate Librarian

Reference/ILL/Bibliographic Instruction LibrarianWestminster College

New Wilmington, PA 16172

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STATISTICAL METHODS FOR THE INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL:A PRACTICAL, PAINLESS APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING, USING,AND INTERPRETING STATISTICS. Vaughan, Lewin. ASIST MonographSeries. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc., 2001. 209 pp. ISBN: 1-57386-110-9.$39.50.

Statistical Methods for the Information Professional uses logical reasoningrather than mathematical deduction to explain statistical concepts and tests.Examples are drawn from information science research. Use of computer soft-ware to do calculations is emphasized.

Over the past ten years, statistical education has changed; partially in re-sponse to the ubiquity of computers, partially in response to research in educa-tion. Fewer statistics courses emphasize formulas; more emphasize theanalysis that is possible after the computer has performed the tedious calcula-tions on real sets of data. Ronald Thisted and Paul Velleman, statisticiansknown for their research in conceptual understanding of statistics have said,“Computers are important in statistics class to the extent that they increase theopportunities for intellectual engagement. Students ask questions when the an-swers interest them and the answers are not hard or impossible to obtain. Thisis much more powerful and effective motivation than merely seeking to learnthe right responses for an exam. Because computers simultaneously are centralto what statisticians do and are the tools that make structured inquiry possible,we cannot imagine an up-to-date introductory or applied statistics course thatdoes not give students substantial experience with computers” (Thisted). Thistext successfully incorporates the use of computer software within an elemen-tary discussion of basic statistical concepts and techniques.

The data used within the book is focused toward the information profes-sional or information science student. Examples are drawn from salary data ofinformation consultants, attitude towards introducing a fee for services at pub-lic libraries, collection size per capita, gender breakdown in seeking staff help,etc. Many of these data sets do not represent real data but have been created toillustrate the author’s point. Artificially created data sets have advantages anddisadvantages. Vaughan successfully uses artificial data sets to illustrate atechnique. The inexperienced reader needs to be aware that this type of data setfails to show the complexity and messiness of real data.

A brief overview is given of the types of data, basic graphs including bargraphs, line charts, pie charts and histograms, measures of central tendency andvariance, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, sampling methods, the chi-squaretest, correlation, two sample and paired t-tests, one way analysis of variance, andbasic nonparametric tests. For the most part, Vaughan succeeds in conveying thestatistical concepts logically rather than mathematically. Additional calculations

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should have been omitted. For example, several pages are devoted to the deriva-tion of the standard deviation, but, the conceptual understanding that the standarddeviation is “roughly the average distance of the observed value from their mean”is never explained (Utts). The five number summary, (minimum, first quartile,median, third quartile, maximum) is omitted in the summary statistics section.Vaughan explains the inter-quartile range calculation by stating, “Divide thesorted data into four quarters and disregard the top quarter and bottom quarter ofthe data” (pg. 35). Since the five number summary includes the minimum andmaximum data points, the data are better described and no data are “disregarded.”

Excel and SPSS are the software packages the author has chosen to use. Shevacillates between trying to explain how to use the software and trying to explainthe output from the software. The reader should not expect to learn how to use ei-ther software package by reading this book. SPSS (a student version is availablefor less than $100 from Prentice Hall) is an excellent statistical package capable ofproducing easy to read graphs with minimal effort. Appropriate output from thepackage is shown throughout the book. Excel, on one hand ubiquitous, producespoor graphs with substantial effort and meaningless statistics. With the availabilityof numerous adequate statistical packages on the Internet (search for statisticalsoftware packages), Excel should not be used as a statistical package.

Vaughan does her audience a disservice by implying that graphs in Excelare easily created and easily read. For example, on pages 16-19 several Excelgraphs are shown. The data were not graphed as she says with a “few clicks.”Histograms in Excel require first collecting data into “bins” and then graphingthe collected data. Furthermore, with the false third dimension (note the barsare shown having a volume) the height of the bar is not clearly communicated.What are the heights of the bars on page 18? Output for statistical analyses is adump of all possible (but not pertinent) values (e.g., page 39) and thus quitedifficult to read. In short, the book is not as good as it could be because of thechoice of software.

This book would be useful for a review of statistical concepts for the informa-tion science professional. It, also, might be useful in helping prepare questionsfor discussion with a statistician of the statistical analysis of functions within alibrary. However, I doubt if analyses could be done with the background thebook seeks to provide. A teacher of statistical analysis for information scienceprofessionals would find this book most useful as a resource for examples.

Dr. Carolyn K. CuffAssociate Professor of Mathematics

Westminster CollegeNew Wilmington, PA 16172-0001


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REFERENCES

Thisted, Ronald A., Velleman, Paul F. “Computers and Modern Statistics,” in Perspec-tives on Contemporary Statistics edited by David C. Hoaglin and David S. Moore,Mathematical Association of America Notes, Number 21, 1992: 45.

Utts, Jessica M. Seeing Through Statistics, Belmont, CA, Duxbury Press, 1996, 121.

CREATING WEB-ACCESSIBLE DATABASES: CASE STUDIES FORLIBRARIES, MUSEUMS, AND OTHER NONPROFITS. Still, Julie M. (Ed.).Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc., 2001. 184 pp. ISBN: 1-57387-104-4.$39.50.

This volume contains twelve chapters, each describing an author’s experi-ence with either converting pre-existing paper collections to a Web database orcreating a Web database. These narratives typically explained the

• reasons for producing a database,• description of the planning process,• issues of production–

• who produced it,• problems,• hardware and software needs–

• security issues,• project’s effect on internal and external relationships,• reception of database and modifications, if any,• use tracking efforts,• updating issues, and• suggestions for others planning a database.

Melissa Doak, in “Women and Social Movements in the United States,1830-1930,” chronicles how a university course research assignment developedinto a large and ever-growing database of primary documents, partially fundedby the NEH. Vicky Speck describes the issues of creating a web-accessible data-base from her perspective as editorial director of serials at ABC-CLIO. Two au-

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thors discuss their different paths to the out-of-print book Web-business eachcreated. Vibiana Bowman, an academic reference librarian, describes the con-version of local history scrapbooks to a web-accessible database, of interest andvalue to more than the locals.

The need for high-quality, relevant, web-accessible databases exists. Whilethe chapters in this book are of uneven quality, this collection may provide thespark that ignites the reader to create or convert her/his web-accessible data-base of distinction.




EDITORIAL PEER REVIEW: ITS STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES.Weller, Ann C. ASIST Monograph Series. Medford, NJ: Information Today,Inc. 2001. 342 pp. ISBN:1-57387-100-1. $44.95.

Editorial peer review is the process through which almost all scholarly andresearch articles are vetted. According to Weller, “some form of prepublica-tion review has been part of the journal production process since the first scien-tific journals appeared over 300 years ago” (p. 1).

Weller examined the research published between 1945 and 1997 on thetopic of the editorial peer review process. She notes: “In 1974, FranzIngelfinger, editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, made the first ap-peal for research into the field of editorial peer review” (p. 10) and he did sobecause of the significant influence the system exerts on the lives of scholars.Weller’s review of the subject looks at general studies of rejection rates, stud-ies of editors, studies of authors, and studies of reviewers. She devotes a chap-ter to peer review in the emerging electronic environment and discusses thereview process as being transformed by new models. Each of the ten chaptersincludes an extensive bibliography.

Throughout the work, Weller discusses the strengths and weakness of theprocess in an open, readable manner. She concludes with suggestions for fu-ture study, a discussion about improving peer review, thoughts on the value of


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the process, and the need to preserve the peer review process as the scholarlycommunity incorporates the electronic environment into the formula. This is ameticulously designed and executed study. All scholars would benefit fromreading Weller’s work.




THE INVISIBLE WEB: UNCOVERING INFORMATION SOURCESSEARCH ENGINES CAN’T SEE. Sherman, Chris and Gary Price. Medford,NJ: CyberAge Books, 2001. 439 pp. ISBN: 0-910965-51-X. $29.95.

Sherman and Price tell us that most of the content-rich, the current gen-eral-purpose search engines do not retrieve authoritative information accessi-ble over the Internet. In The Invisible Web they explore this situation, analyzeit, offer explanations, and suggest sites and sources to facilitate retrieval ofquality information within numerous broad subjects.

In the first three chapters, Sherman and Price provide us with a clearly de-fined and articulated discussion of The Invisible Web. They begin with chaptersdevoted to understanding the Internet, the Web, and the visible web. Their ex-planation of the creation and evolution of the Internet and the Web are succinctand clear. This explanation leads to a simple discussion of communication prob-lems and solutions, in particular the early search engines. They discuss browsingvs. searching, web directories, metasearch engines, and current search engines,while cleverly debunking several search engine “myths.” Of special note are thehalf-dozen pages devoted to alternative search tools such as browser agents, cli-ent-based search tools, web rings, and fee-based web-accessible services.

Chapter Four provides a clear, easy-to-understand articulation of the invisi-ble web. The authors define the invisible web as “Text pages, files, or other of-ten high-quality authoritative information available via the World Wide Webthat general-purpose search engines cannot, due to technical limitations, orwill not, due to deliberate choice, add to their indices of Web pages.” Theyprovide a table to illustrate characteristics of information “On the Web” vs.“Via the Web.” They provide a table to illustrate types of invisible Web con-tent and why it’s invisible. Search engines are designed to retrieve text pages

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encoded in HTML. Problems of retrieval are a result of content not conformingto this model. Webmasters can block, and therefore prevent, crawlers from ac-cessing and indexing a page. Pages so blocked become part of the InvisibleWeb. In addition, there are other technical limitations analyzed through sevenmini case studies. And finally, Sherman and Price name and explain the fourtypes of invisibility: The Opaque Web, The Private Web, The ProprietaryWeb, and The Truly Invisible Web.

Chapters Five through Eight are devoted to determining when the informa-tion you need is visible or invisible, explaining how you decide when the Invis-ible Web is the best source for the information you need to find (the authorsprovide information, including URLs, for the top 25 Invisible Web catego-ries), using eight case studies to demonstrate why generic search engines can-not find the material but also how to find the invisible web material, andprojecting the structure of the future Invisible Web.

In Chapter Nine the authors introduce and discuss Invisible Webpathfinders. Invisible Web pathfinders are starting points-directories listinglinks to Invisible Web resources. Here is one to whet your appetite: ProFusion(http://www.profusion.com).

The second, and largest portion of the book (Chapters Ten through TwentySeven), provides a directory of more than 1,000 Invisible Web sites in catego-ries ranging from art and architecture to business and investing, from healthand medical to legal and criminal, from public records to science. The bookcontains a glossary, a short but sufficient reference list, and one alphabetical indexcovering topics, names of individuals, databases, and entities, as well as book andperiodical titles. The companion web site (http://www.invisible-web.net/)for the directory portion of this book provides current links, the most up-to-dateannotations, and is continually updated to include new resources. This site iskeyword searchable. A check of several of the listed URLs found them to be ac-tive in mid-November 2001.

The opening chapters, primarily a review for the experienced searcher, areworth reading by all searchers. Bibliographic instruction librarians will find in thissource concrete examples for teaching Web searching and evaluation strategies tostudents. Reference librarians will enhance their knowledge base for directing us-ers to the best Web sources of information. This book is logically designed, clearlywritten, modestly priced, and should be on the active searcher’s desk.





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